las vegas is...

...home to the best restaurant in the USA.

is there a way we can bar people who don't know basic craps strategy from voting in this poll

what's the best restaurant in the USA? is it the place w/ the deep fried oreos

no that place in is NY iirc

mixed feelings, mostly like

we are all las vegas

yeah, marinate in that one for a moment

oh, I will; I will

ilu strongo <3

what's the best restaurant in the USA? is it the place w/ the deep fried oreos

― iatee, Thursday, July 7, 2011 12:02 PM (9 minutes ago)

http://www.mgmgrand.com/restaurants/joel-robuchon-french-restaurant.aspx

yeah actually there was a big article about how pretty much all the great chefs are doing their best & most daring work in Vegas

as a guy who deplores the idea of "daring work" with cuisine I hope they all get hit by a meteorite but the point stands

voted "mixed feelings but mostly i like it."

I have never been there but I'd like to go, but probably only for a couple of days. Not really a gambler, but the atmosphere would be fun/interesting to soak up I'm sure.

Really needs an "all of the above" option imo. It's a horrible horrible place that's super fun and interesting.

this post from the hro thread summed up how I feel...

haha I kind of thrive off of depressing places tbh. america is depressing. america!!

― dayo, Thursday, July 7, 2011 11:10 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

heh...yeah, that sums it up pretty well
xpost

yeah actually there was a big article about how pretty much all the great chefs are doing their best & most daring work in Vegas

― love in a grain elevator (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, July 7, 2011 3:13 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

[[citation needed]]

I have mixed feelings but I mostly like it

^^^ have outgrown the "VEGAS, BABY, VEGAS" stage (got accidentally drugged last time I was there + don't drink nearly as much as I used to), but would like to try some of the restaurants and spend a few days in the sports books next time I'm there.

Never been and have no plans on going. I'm kind of opposed to it morally.

it's one of the most egregious urban planning/resource-wasting disasters in the history of humanity imho

Yeah, to be clear, it's not gambling or whatnot I give a shit about, it's what Shakey said.

it's one of the most egregious urban planning/resource-wasting disasters in the history of humanity imho
--a man is only a guy (Shakey Mo Collier)

this statement could refer to 90% of the American built landscape. but at least Vegas is filled w/ entertaining things and people.

i would have to guess that 90 percent of american cities dont have a downtown that sucks sucks power in quiiiiiiiiiiiiiite the same way

i'm glad the swingers era is (mostly) over; i can't imagine how bad vegas was in the late '90s.

i mean maybe djp is okay with it but i cross the street when i see packs of drunk men bellowing

you mean you cross the street to join them, right?

i guess we are still in the era of the hangover. sigh.

testosterone. it's a thing.

this statement could refer to 90% of the American built landscape. but at least Vegas is filled w/ entertaining things and people.

umm, no. Vegas is a city that uses massive amounts of resources - water, energy, food - none of which is readily available nearby, all of which needs to be imported, at colossal expense.

pretty sure more than 10% of American cities are built near potable bodies of water

for example

i guess we are still in the era of the hangover. sigh.

yeah, if anything I would think it's worse now

it's okay. iatee has an earth, but he also has several other planets.

and in each case (water, energy, food) Vegas uses disproportionately higher amounts due to insanely wasteful things like, oh, I dunno, the Bellagio's fountain, or keeping air-conditioning and massive banks of lights on 24/7. which just does not happen in 90% of American cities.

xp

I mean I look at Las Vegas and I just see a giant pit that eats wealth and resources and generates nothing besides "flashing lights shit I AM DRUNK ooh look tits!"

the strip is small though; it's not like the resource-hogging extends beyond a few long blocks. the rest of las vegas (and the surrounding suburbs) just act like normal places.

normal places that have set up shop in the desert and siphoned off water from faraway rivers, that is.

the resource hogging of that few long blocks is really extreme. and it's not like the rest of the city doesn't need round-the-clock AC, water, etc

i think it's cool that America has a place that takes on this weird mythic quality just by virtue of a remote location and some slightly different laws and commerce regulations. we should have more random cities sprinkled throughout the country where certain laws don't apply at all and the buildings all look completely ridiculous.

hell

You have L.A. to thank for the creation of the Strip, since the crackdown on gambling in the late 30s drove a bunch of mobsters from the Sunset strip to Vegas where they basically duplicated and expanded on the whole Sunset strip club scene.

speaking of "normal places that have set up shop in the desert and siphoned off water from faraway rivers, that is."

The whole urbanized southwest is basically an abomination unto the lord. *has never visited*

Am reading William T Vollman's Imperial and basically it seems like ppl wandered into southern CA, etc. and were like "the desert is obvs the best place to start farming, let's just go drain the Colorado river"

L.A. is not actually a desert though.

Just telling you in advance so you don't ever have to visit.

I used to have to go a couple times a year, and I'd always really look forward to it, then have lots of fun for about 36 hours. then want to get the fuck out.

I dunno about the restaurants though. Most of them seem watered down and more expensive franchised versions of NY and SF restaurants, with not particularly interesting stuff -- lots of luxury foods placed on top of other luxury foods?

The shopping isn't bad though. Prada, Balenciaga, Marni, etc, and people keep telling me the vintage shops there are awesome?

Also, lots of married conventioneers to fuck

I would also recommend not visiting Rome, Barcelona, Athens, etc.
xpost

why bother, you have Caesars Palace, The Venetian, and Excalibur, for culture & history!

I looked it up and apparently casinos = 20% of the city's energy use. considering their immense economic value and the fact that much of their energy use is basically a public good that seems pretty reasonable!

I had never given a fuck about Vegas because I never been into gambling or even games at all (I mean, other than Contra) as a kid. But once when I was out in San Diego a friend asked me to go for a night and so I suspended all my prejudices and adopted an optimistic attitude. 24 hours later, I was driving back across the desert wondering if I had missed any good television.

Went with "I have mixed feelings but it's mostly horrible".

It has been a very long time since I have been there but Las Vegas was simply spectacular.

i forgot who it was in the hro thread that said downtown use to be very classic but they are otm.

living in LA is was cool having relatively easy access to Vegas. Never took the place too seriously it was just there as a nice little discursion now and then.

I have mixed feelings but it's mostly horrible.

That said, I've been to Vegas once as an adult and totally had a "Vegas Experience." Would probably do it again.

i think a lot of us felt very much like locals there. going there as kids with our parents and then many times as adults, we really knew the ins and outs and how to have fun/get wasted on a slight budget

Dope shit was like loading up a 2$ black jack table with a bunch of friends at Slots-o-fun or something and just chillin, smoking cigs and having a blast.

some shit about how disastrous Las Vegas urban planning has been:

running out of water
where Vegas gets its power from (hint: coal plants!) "The city demands 5,600 megawatts on a summer day. By 2015 that’s expected to hit 8,000. “We could build everything that has been proposed and still have the same deficit then that we do now"

Denial is a city in Nevada

"They have over $30 billion las vegas developmentworth of new developments on the books with the first one being the City Centre Development. This covers two blocks of an imploded MGM lot and will include 7 major buildings covering 1.8 million square meters of hotels, residences and casino. It will house 8000 new apartments and will need 12,000 additional staff to service it, who in turn will need housing, schools and cars. This, in a city with high levels of unemployment, soaring house prices and an electricity and water supply system in crisis.

Each new resident will need 20,000 kWh of electricity a year. That will be 400,000 megawatts at a cost of $40,000,000 a year producing 160,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum. But that is at a time when Wall Street Analysts predict that the $60 barrel of oil will be $300 a barrel by 2015 energy running costs may be five times higher- $200,000,000 a year at a time when many of the median income visitors will no longer be able to afford the air flights in.

The total electricity output generated by the Hoover, Parker and David Dams is only 200,000 megawatts in a good year. So the new development will need yet more power. They are already building two more coal power stations. They are also commissioning the Solar One 64 megawatt solar generator in the Nevada Desert but even with this they still will not have the generating capacity to keep the lights on in the new development let alone the rest of the Strip. Haven’t they done the Math ???"

They should put a bunch of tiny dynamos inside all the slot machines, generating a little power every time the handle is pulled. Make that shit self-sustaining.

'36 hours. then want to get the fuck out'

was less for me. I was not built for encouraged loss of money and OTT air con.

'They should put a bunch of tiny dynamos inside all the slot machines, generating a little power every time the handle is pulled. Make that shit self-sustaining'

patent that shit NOW

wouldn't even power the slot machine the handle's attached to

Wait, you haven't also heard my plan for breaking all the light bulbs on the slot machines.

If only we could harness the power of handwringing.

Las Vegas is WAY fun....and cheap!!

I had a Jewish black friend with one eye who loved Vegas.

Rod Carew?

since he could only halfway enjoy the lights it seems like his presence there was twice as wasteful, energy-wise imo

I keep changing my mind about going to Vegas (not been there yet). From what everyone tells me I would probably hate it yet I know I could have fun if I went with a bunch of fun people and not just my miserable self and cynical partner.

Mr bojangles

I think it's actually amazingly easy to have fun there for cynical people. so much to criticize! everywhere!

Bruce Bégout would agree: http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9781861891761

(This book sucks, imo)

I have never been to Las Vegas, but I am excited to go bcz OTT campy spectacle is one of my favorite things ever. I should be there for a few days this summer.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

why does ilx hate super fun

i abstained from voting because of this:

is there a way we can bar people who don't know basic craps strategy from voting in this poll

― love in a grain elevator (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, July 7, 2011 3:00 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark

I only play penny slots #baller

Vegas is hilarious & fun & I've been many times & had a blast & I don't even gamble. Just sitting at the nickel slots & getting free drinks & watching people & wandering into the baccarat rooms & really just wandering the Strip is excellent. Obviously it's a resource disaster & I'm glad I don't have a job there.

its actually a pretty good deal to play penny slots really, really slowly and get free drinks

xp nickel damn, you're big time

I think you get prettier waitresses that way.

my basic craps strategy is to not play craps

craps more like craps

Anybody who talks shit about Vegas can pretty much forget about marrying me.

can't fucking wait tbh

GOING THERE NEXT WEEK. CAN'T WAIT. FOOOOD.

yes!

I always make sure I visit this place, so yum
http://www.luvitfrozencustard.com/

The Peppermill was always uber fun for me. Love the the musty ac smell entering the older hotel/casinos. Stayed at all the older hotel/casinos I could. Got married there. Saw Don Rickles, Wayne Newton sang me a song and sent champagne to our table, came and hung out with us after the show, autographed goofy pics, saw Tony Bennett...all on two separate trips. Vegas succeeded in making me feel like I was something super special when I did visit. Didn't hang in the newer places too much. Don't know if I would like to return. Sort of perfect memories and would like to leave them that way. The best is flying in at night, the jet was empty. Wow, tomorrow will be 11 years since my first trip.

Yeah Peppermill is cool

You have some A+ memories though Tera, wow!

Yeah, Peppermill is nice. I loved Vegas - I thought I'd be all cynical about it, but we had a blast and are thinking of going back again next year. The 'free cocktails for minimalist slot/video poker' trick served us very nicely. Utterly hated Fremont Street, but the swimming pool in the Golden Nugget is kinda awesome, it has a SHARK TANK in the middle of it, ffs!

We were all 'yay food' and then spent most our time with dollar margaritas and $2 hotdogs at Casino Royale.

peppermill is great

I know Las Vegas can be enjoyed on the cheap w/o gambling and tears. I know it looks like a Disneyland w/o turnstiles. I know it is all about hurling your cares aside and just letting your id roam and be happy as a cat on a warm porch.

But for me it would be nothing but an oppression of the spirit. The gigantic displays of waste and excess would give me no joy. The incessant prodding to stop all thought and be led like a lamb about to be fleeced. The noise and garishness as surrogates for fun and laughter. I can't get around that shit.

The only reason I'd ever go there is to rent a car and get out of town into the desert as soon as possible, looking for a good trail to hike.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVCisD3eMcI

Aimless that's you but I'm shallow and like decadence. Bring on the spirit oppression.

I never gamble, I just love the food & neon & booze & trashiness. And all the random off-strip weirdness.

Though I heard there's a shooting range where you can let off grenade launchers & shit. I'd SO go there.

Also wanna see the Hoover Dam one day.

Hoover Dam looked way smaller than I expected

I loved looking out the window from the Sahara and, at the time, I was able to see the desert, lots of space. I loved getting out into the desert. The sky in Vegas is unlike any sky I have ever seen. Loved the sky at 11am. I was there in November and October.

They tore down the Stardust, stayed there the first time I visited. Never stayed at the hotel/casinos downtown but wanted to stay at the Cortez for some reason. Now it all seems pretty shady there.

Have a collection of vintage, Las Vegas dice, cards, ashtrays, chips and various other Vegas junk.